Integration By Risk Analysis? Frontex and the Silent Harmonization of European Border Control

Scholars have recently highlighted the important role of risk analysis in the European integration of border control, but fail to explain the assumed harmonization dynamics. The paper illuminates this blind spot by harvesting insights from risk-based regulation research for examining the European integration of border control. An interpretive policy analysis of three cases – Eurosur impact level assessment, the Schengen evaluation mechanism and the Internal Security Fund – highlights how EU-level actors use Frontex risk analysis to foster harmonization. They do so by capitalizing on the promises of risk-based rationalization: efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency gains in regulation, de-politicization, and the maintenance of trust and solidarity in a regulatory regime. Findings indicate that risk analysis can advance European integration because it offers a multi-functional rationalization of border controls which legitimizes increased EU-level coordination without openly questioning national sovereignty. Such a silent harmonization may prove successful in other domains, too, but bears substantial implications for the accountability of political decision-making.